OPEC president says oil markets 'very balanced'

Doha (Platts)--9Apr2007

Oil markets are currently "very balanced" and the recent spike in oil
prices was due to geopolitical tension over the capture of British sailors by
Iran, OPEC president Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli said Monday.

"Oil markets are very balanced. The rise in oil prices was due to
geopolitics," he told Platts on the sidelines of a meeting of gas exporters in
the Qatari capital.

Hamli said that tight gasoline supply in the US market even before the
start of the US driving season was also a factor. "Refineries in the US are
running at 87 percent," he said. This had an impact on US light sweet crude
oil futures prices and widened the differential with North Sea Brent, which at
one point had ballooned to $4/barrel, Hamli, who is the UAE's oil minister,
said.

"There is a squeeze on gasoline," he said, referring to the return of
refineries from maintenance turnarounds. He expected refinery throughputs to
rise in coming weeks, helping to ease pressure on gasoline.

Hamli put current spare capacity in OPEC at 3-3.5 million b/d.